The present invention relates generally to tire removal. More specifically, the present invention relates to tire removal for large tires to minimize or eliminate scuffing
Almost all vehicles that travel the roads these days are supported by wheels, or rims, circumferentially supported by tires. The tires are in direct contact with the road and typically composed of material that eventually wears. As such the tires need to be periodically replaced.
The owners, and normally the drivers, of numerous types of these vehicles take pride and care in the appearance of their vehicle. This pride and care can be seen in various customizations and features in the vehicles themselves including added features and specialized paint. Some of these owners also use specialized tires and wheels. This is true for numerous owners of numerous types of vehicles, including the owners and drivers of large vehicles such as commercial trucks, buses, and the like.
One area in which these owners and drivers take pride is the appearance of the wheels, or rims, on which the tires are attached. For example, numerous owners and drivers have a shiny metallic or chrome appearance to their wheels and prefer those wheels to have a finished and/or polished look. To get the look desired, numerous owners have their wheels professionally polished.
The general maintenance of these high stylized wheels can normally be maintained through periodic washing during normal operation of the vehicle. However, when the tires that are attached to these wheels become used and in need of replacement, the wheels are removed from the vehicle and the tires replaced.
This removal and replacement process is conventionally accomplished by placing the wheel and tire on the ground, such as the vehicle maintenance floor, and then using tools to remove the tire from the wheel. Normally the internal surface of the wheel, the surface facing the vehicle during normal operation, must be accessed in order to remove the tire from the wheel. This typically necessitates placing the high polished surface, or the surface facing away from the vehicle during normal operation, on the ground. This positioning of the wheel's surface on the ground unfortunately causes scuffing of the high polished exposed surfaces of the wheel during the tire removal and replacement process. This can be an issue since the cost to polish the exposed surfaces for these large wheels can run into hundreds if not thousands of dollars per polishing, especially for vehicles that operate on more than four wheels and tires.
Typical prior attempts to stop this scuffing have relied on pads or cushioning of some type to be placed on the ground. These attempts have tried to soften the engagement between the polished wheel surface and the ground. This unfortunately has not alleviated the problem. These padded surfaces do not normally provide the adequate protection to the high polished metal surfaces of the wheels and can become dirty and hold grit and grime. As such the padded surfaces after one or two uses scratch the high polish surface of the wheel and impart dirt and other particles to those polished surfaces thereby reducing the aesthetic appeal of those wheels.
What is needed then is a new apparatus and method of maintaining the polished surface to wheels, especially large wheels, when the tire attached to those wheels are removed and replaced. This needed apparatus preferably maintains the high polished surface of the wheel during the tire removal and exchange process. This needed apparatus and method are lacking in the art.